OTTAWA — In a surprise twist in Canada’s shipbuilding saga, a foreign consortium is offering the country a way to build a fleet of warships at a guaranteed price of $30 billion — a potential savings of $32 billion. Fincantieri of Italy and Naval Group of France — major forces in international shipbuilding — don’t believe the current $62-billion Canadian Surface Combatant program, already beset with delays and increasing costs, will be successful, industry sources told Postmedia. Instead, the French and Italian governments have proposed that Canada’s chosen contractor, Halifax-based Irving Shipbuilding, build 15 ships based on the consortium’s FREMM...

An Iver Huitfeldt-class frigate. (Odense Maritime Technology) Ken Hansen, who retired from the Royal Canadian Navy in 2009 at the rank of Commander, is an independent defence analyst and owner of Hansen Maritime Horizons. He is a member of the Science Advisory Committee for Atlantic Oceans Research Enterprise, and a contributor to the Security Affairs Committee for the Royal United Services Institute. When it was first announced in 2011, Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy immediately became the most expensive capital procurement in the history of the country. Initially estimated to cost $38.6 billion, the 25-year plan more than doubles the amount...

Companies bidding to design Canada's new warships have to throw in specifications for everything — including the kitchen sink and the paperwork to prove it works. That is one of about 600 technical requirements in the design stage of the $60-billion frigate replacement program — the myriad tiny details that some of the 12 companies in the competition say are excessive. One section of the bid documents, obtained by CBC News, lists the appliances and expectations for the ship's galley. It is an extensive list, including a 40-litre mixing machine, one four-rack convection oven, a single two-compartment steamer cooker, two...

CANBERRA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Europe's largest shipbuilder has promised to list itself on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) if given a 27 billion U.S. dollar navy frigate contract. Italy's Fincantieri on Thursday released the details of its bid for the 27.4 billion U.S. dollar Future Frigates project which will see nine new vessels built for the Australian Navy, the first of which will be launched in the late 2020s. Fincantieri is one of three international companies bidding for the contract alongside Spain's Navantia and the Britain's BAE Systems, all of which are proposing different designs. A bid by Western...

On its mission to field a 355 ship fleet, the US Navy has been looking at what it has in storage to help make that goal a reality. Even the carrier USS Kitty Hawk has been put forward as a possible candidate for regeneration, although the reality of what it would take to truly make such an endeavor successful puts it firmly in the unlikely category. But the seven Oliver Hazard Perry class frigates now sitting in mothballs tell another story. Now Secretary of Navy Richard Spencer is saying these ships could be regenerated very cheaply and without any major...

BMT Defence bid for the Royal Navy Type 31E Frigate LONDON — The Royal Navy’s planned Type-31e light frigate will transform the dismal export record of U.K.-based shipbuilders, a senior government minister told attendees at the DSEI exhibition in London. U.K. defense secretary Sir Michael Fallon said that Britain’s shipyards have not built a frigate for another country since the 1970s. “We’re changing all that”, he declared in a keynote speech on Wednesday. “This frigate will rock the exports boat and it’s a model for the way we will approach shipbuilding in future.” The U.S. Navy is among potential overseas...

The launch this week of Britain’s national shipbuilding strategy, with an order of five vessels to be designed and built in English shipyards, sees the UK’s aspiration to compete in the global warship export market. The British government this week launched a national shipbuilding strategy with an order for five new vessels for the Royal Navy to be designed and built across English shipyards. The core design of these new ships is called the Type 31 export (T31e) frigate, although there are already questions as to whether the type is a frigate or a corvette. Either way, the proposed price...

Perseus, an earlier concept missile Royal Navy ships will lose anti-ship missile capability in 2018 when the Harpoon missile is withdrawn with a replacement not due until ‘around 2030’. We reported today, incorrectly, that the new frigates would more than likely have anti-ship weapons ordered to fill this gap before they enter service. We were mistaken and have since amended earlier articles to reflect what is written in this article. While the Royal Navy will still have an anti-ship capability via the submarine fleet and embarked helicopters, this will still be a significant capability gap and even then, no Royal...

In 2023, the Royal Navy hopes the first of its new Type 31 frigates will hit the waves to replace HMS Argyll, the first of 13 Type 23 frigates scheduled to begin retiring that year, with another to retire every year until 2035. The new vessels will add desperately needed modern warships to the United Kingdom’s depleted fleet. However, that’s the hope. It’s not realistic, according to program officials cited in a report from Defense News. The compressed timetable will likely delay the Type 31, and worse — tight budgets are forcing compromises with the vessel’s weapons and capabilities. The...

[SYDNEY] Britain's defence secretary on Wednesday made a strong push to build Australia's next fleet of warships, saying the frigates he proposes are best placed to hunt "Russian and Chinese submarines" amid regional tensions. Australia earlier this year detailed a massive A$89 billion (S$95.8 billion) shipbuilding strategy, including constructing new submarines and frigates, in the nation's largest peacetime naval investment. The big increase in defence spending comes as Beijing flexes its muscle in the region through a military build-up in the contested South China Sea, and as tensions remain high on the Korean peninsula. Defence Secretary Michael Fallon made the...

After years of delays and debate, construction of the Royal Navy’s future Type 26 frigates has officially begun at a shipyard in Scotland. The full class of eight ships will provide a number of critically needed capabilities, including acting as additional escorts for the United Kingdom’s up-coming pair of supercarriers. The first of those flattops, HMS Queen Elizabeth, is in the middle of her first sea trials in the North Sea. On July 20, 2017, the United Kingdom’s Defense Secretary Sir Michael Fallon led a ceremony to cut the first steel for the lead ship at BAE Systems’ Govan shipyard...

“Our history is clear that nations with strong allies thrive, and those without them wither. My key words are solvency and security to protect the American people. My priorities as SECDEF are strengthening readiness, strengthening alliances, and bring business reform to DOD.” – General James Mattis (ret.), SECDEF Confirmation Hearing, 1/11/17 At current growth rates, China may become a comparable power to the United States in economic and military terms in the not too distant future. In this future world, China will be less constrained than it is today to attempt to coerce other Asian nations to its will.[1] China’s...

USS Freedom (LCS-1) and USS Independence (LCS-2) This post has been updated to include the link to the full Request for Information. The Navy released the first formal details on what it wants in its guided-missile frigate in a new request for information to industry issued today. The new ship concept outlined in the RFI in many ways resembles the Navy’s previous frigate plans but also looks at upgrades like more powerful radars and vertical-launch missile tubes. The RFI notes the Navy is still seeking industry input on a variety of capabilities – including, how to incorporate missile launchers for...

Studies are underway to “take a hard look” at putting eight mothballed Oliver Hazard Perry frigates back into service as well as extending the life of existing Arleigh Burke guided-missile destroyers to help the Navy reach its goal of a 355-ship fleet, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said on Tuesday. Speaking before an audience at the U.S. Naval War College, Richardson said service leaders were looking at “every trick” to put more platforms into the fleet including bringing back some Perrys into service. “We’re taking a hard look at the Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates. There’s seven or eight...

Although the nine future frigates are to be optimised for anti-submarine warfare, confirmation that their armament will include SM-2 missiles means they will also be providing a valuable contribution to the Royal Australian Navy’s task group protection. The SM-2, along with the CEAFAR2 S/X/L band active phased- array radar systems under development by Canberra-based CEA, has been directed by the government to be essential rather than desirable for the $35 billion SEA 5000 Phase 1 purchasing that is expected to begin replacing the RAN’s eight Anzac-Class frigates from about 2027. Equipping the ships of the Future Frigate program with the...

Germany's much-delayed new frigates, built by ThyssenKrupp (TKAG.DE) and Luerssen for at least 650 million euros (£551.4 million) apiece, are overweight and float with a persistent list to starboard, according to a confidential report seen by Reuters. The ships, designed to need a crew of only 120, less than half their predecessors, are a crucial element in Germany's plans to beef up its military to face an increasingly uncertain European security landscape and a more assertive Russia. Designed to remain at sea for far longer than the German armed forces' existing fleet, the new F125 frigates need extensive servicing only...

[UPDATED with Sec. Stackley comments] WASHINGTON: The Navy is seriously considering derivatives of foreign designs and the Coast Guard’s National Security Cutter for its new frigate, after three years pursuing an upgraded version of its current Littoral Combat Ship. The shift has shaken up the industry, panicking some players, while others quietly reposition: Wisconsin’s Marinette Marine, which currently builds the 3,500-ton Freedom variant of the LCS, may instead offer an Americanized version of the FREMM, a 6,000 to 6,700-ton frigate built for the French and Italian navies by Marinette’s parent company, Fincantieri. If so, Marinette would probably part ways with...

A major military defeat can unexpectedly turn into a victory. Indeed, the actions of the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov operating off the Syrian coast could easily be qualified as a failure (see EDM, October 27, 2016; November 15, 2016). The ship inched around the coast of Europe on its way to Syria, desperately puffing thick, black smoke due to a problem with its power plant. Then, during training operations in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Kuznetsov lost two warplanes, which fell into the sea due to technical faults, without any opposition from the enemy. However, the Navy won a decisive...

Austal USA frigate design. Austal USA image THE PENTAGON – The Navy is considering increasing its future frigate’s anti-air firepower and may open up the frigate design competition to hulls beyond the current two small surface combatant , the service told USNI News on Wednesday. An ongoing study will balance the original frigate requirements – to up-gun the existing Littoral Combat Ship designs with additional anti-surface and anti-submarine capabilities – with the desire for anti-air firepower equivalent to a guided-missile frigate. The study, set to be completed this spring, will also evaluate other design beyond the Lockheed Martin Freedom-variant (LCS-1)...